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Wednesday, December 30, 2015

I am an organized person. I love things just so and when they aren't it drives me nuts! One area that has been driving me nuts was my scarf storage. I searched high and low and couldn't find a solution I loved. Then I searched Pinterest. It had to give me some ideas. I wanted to see the scarves, and easily accessible. I wanted something compact but yet didn't wrinkle the scarves.

I saw plenty that knotted the scarves in shoe racks or used shower curtain hangers.

These just wouldn't do.

Then I found this...

The lady behind Iheartorganization hung up her fabric on pant hangers. I could honestly kick myself for not thinking of this earlier!

I grabbed a few pant hangers and got to work.

My winter scarves lay better when I put one per bar.

The same goes for my expensive or fancy scarves.

Up last are my fashion scarves. They take up a lot of space so I fold them to fit three is a row. As you can see one is missing from a row but I can still see everything without it being overwhelming.

For the longest time, my scarves were thrown into a drawer haphazardly. When I wanted to wear on I would dig through to find the one I wanted, cram the remaining ones back into the drawer and close it hoping I didn't ruin any scarves. Thankfully, I have not ruined a scarf since!

Then on to Spinach Stuffed Shells. I find that I never have an issue with freezing these uncooked. Cheese and egg can cause problems when defrosting, but I find as long as I defrost them fully in the refrigerator before baking them everything is fine.

Last up was tonight's dinner. I'm only making one of these... Manicotti.

Sunday, December 27, 2015

I'll keep this short and sweet cause basically, I'm just sharing the stuff we got and what we did for Christmas... Take 2! Who loves seeing what everybody got for Christmas? I know I do!

Stocking from left to right: Bear, Hubby, Me, and the Pups.

First off we spent a low key day at home mostly in PJ's. We started off like every other Christmas and opened up stockings first thing in the morning. Hence, they will be the first pictures shown. Afterward, we had delicious pancakes.

When we all finished eating we hit the first (second really) wave of gifts. I took some pics, but I really enjoyed watching him rip the paper off to discover the toy itself. It's the first year he actually got the concept. He would hand you the toy to open without freaking out about. It really was something!

We were going to give him about an hour or two in between until he started to get antsy, but he made that decision early. About 30 minutes after the end of the first half of gifts, I turn to see what was going on as I heard paper ripping. He had opened up one gift, a Chuggington train. Bear somehow managed to remove it from the packaging and had started in on another gift. We figured it was time for the last round of gifts. He tore into it all. This batch was mainly Chuggington trains and train accessories. When all his gifts were done he went for ours. Something we may need to watch for (faux) Christmas take 3 next week.

The rest of the day was spent eating, watching movies, gaming and playing cars/trains with Bear. All in all a great Christmas in the books!

Now on to the good stuff, what we got!

Starting things off with Hubby...

*not pictured was his Bow case and Xbox games.

Moving on to what Bear got...

I think the small CAT truck are my favorite gift he got.

Bear opened his gifts in waves and obviously there was no way of him letting me take a decent pic of his stuff so here are some pics of the piles of toys he got.

His favorite, I think, was the large die-cast Lightening McQueen.

Now that he is getting into hot wheels / matchbox cars he needs storage.

This is a Chuggington house, no Thomas allowed.

I love this case, but it appears I didn't count too well when I bought trains,

as he is 2 trains over. I guess we need to pick up another one.

More track, like he needs it.

Some more animals for his little people farm.

Since we don't have cable anymore, Bear will likely be getting more

and more DVDs especially of shows that aren't on Netflix.

Then finally, what I got...

New Howard Leight ear protection for the range.

Scarves, workout clothes (short and tank tops),

obnoxiously bright colored socks, and some fashion necklaces.

This bathing suit I have been searching for since

I found it on Pinterest 2 years ago! Now I own it.

Rachel Khoo and the Pioneer Woman will be added to the shelf and my menu.

Bonus: What the dogs got.... I couldn't leave them out! Despite the lack of pictures of their stuff, the pups got new bones, a new stick chew toy, some chuck it balls, and two new chuck it! Though the chuck its are really for us.

We have one more Christmas coming up, faux Christmas number 2 with my in-laws. We are doing that over New Years and into the new year. Hubby has a surprise gift for me there and he isn't giving me any hints. I hate surprises so this is clearly driving me nuts. Stay tuned for more....

Winter or Christmas themed movies will always make it into this box. I try to keep at least one age-appropriate for Bear, but I do want to play into what he likes. He likes Curious George and the Leap Frog episodes on Netflix, so when I saw these for super cheap it was a no brainer.

Movies need popcorn. Homemade popcorn is even more delicious when put in cute holders accompanied with some seasonings. I also plan to add some grinch cookies into the red box to save specifically for this night.

I also like to include a new winter or Christmas themed book. Bear loves reading as you all know so this is just an extra excuse to give him a new book aside from the one we always read every Christmas.Do you have Christmas Eve Box or something similar to that?

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

It is almost the end of the month and this is what I am currently up to...

Waiting - for snow! While I love the fall, I'm still super excited for that first snowfall of the season. We even went out and bought shovels. This will still be some time off.

Cooking - soups and stews! Who doesn't love a warm bowl of stew with some crusty bread on the cold fall day?

Baking - cookies! I'm trying out some new Christmas cookie recipes and I like to make sure I work out all the kinks before I serve them to the family.

Sewing - drawstring bags to cover odd shaped Christmas toys! These might be used next year, but I still want to make them this year. I managed to found a box for the one odd-shaped item we had to wrap.

Wearing - Plaid Prints! I have Far too many of them, but they are so comfy. I have worn them with skinny jeans tucked in with booties or with my boot cut jeans and sneakers. All depends on where I am going and what I'm doing.

Packing - multiple times! It feels like I'm packing every week cause we are busy going somewhere! I also feel like I have gotten a handle on this over packing thing. Just what I need is going with me!

Bookmarking - Recipes! It's the time of year when I try a lot of new recipes over a short period of time. Typically, I like to try one or two new cookies and, at least, two new appetizer recipes. We seem to always find a need for these types of recipes as we do snack plate dinner or attend several parties/functions over the month of December.Enjoying - Watching Bear understand a bit more of whats's going on around him this time of year. He opened presents on his own at faux Christmas number one and when he saw what was inside the wrapping paper his excitement was infectious!

Monday, December 21, 2015

We took a trip down to Virginia to visit family, watch the Army Navy Game and take in a show. Sunday afternoon we left Bear with his Grandparents and headed over to then Carpenter Theatre to see The Nutcracker Ballet. It's my first time seeing a major production ballet. I've see smaller shows from the NYC ballet but never anything with a story I knew.

I love a pretty ceiling.

There had to be some type of merchandise and I was not let down.

We browsed the tables and found what we wanted that wasn't covered in glitter.

We had great seats!

Left side of the stage

Right side of the stage

Obviously, pictures are not allowed during the performance but here is the stage during intermission.

The show was AMAZING!!!! I loved every minute of it.

I highly recommend going to see this if you are ever in the area.

Last but not least I'll share what we picked up.

My main goal was to avoid glitter.

This greatly limited what we could get because of that.

Despite my restriction I love the one we got.

We also picked up an ornament, again with the no glitter restriction.

The ornaments were a bit easier because there was a bigger variety to choose from.

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